Boels-Dolmans wins Ladies Tour TTT

31 August 2016

Ten days after winning the Vårgårda team time trial in Sweden, Boels-Dolmans set the fastest time in the Boels Rental Ladies Tour stage two time trial. The only team to break 31 minutes over the 26.4-kilometre course, Boels-Dolmans averaged 51.15 kilometres per hour to stop the clock at a blistering fast 30:58. The team beat out reining team time trial world champions CANYON//SRAM, who came second on stage two, by 33 seconds and Rabobank-Liv by more than a minute.

With all six Boels-Dolmans riders finishing on the same time, stage one winner Amalie Dideriksen remains in the orange leader’s jersey, leading her teammates Ellen van Dijk and Chantal Blaak by 10 seconds and Karol-Ann Canuel, Lizzie Armitstead and Christine Majerus by 18 seconds. CANYON//SRAM’s Lisa Brennauer is the best-placed non-Boels-Dolmans rider, sitting in seventh place at 45 seconds.

“The most important thing today was the win,” said Dideriksen. “I’m proud to finish with the girls and keep the jersey another day, but I’m more proud that we set the fastest time. My teammates are so, so strong, and this is only my second team time trial. I’m really happy to learn from them.”

A relatively straight out-and-back course in Gennep set the scene for yet another pre-World Championships show down.

“There was tailwind on the way out and headwind on the way back with some tricky corners near the finish and at the turnaround,” Dideriksen explained. “Otherwise it was quite straight ... and quite hard!”

With Dideriksen in orange, Boels-Dolmans was the final team to race. The six hit the only intermediate check point with a five second lead.

“I knew were on a good ride, and when we got our split, that confirmed it,” said Dideriksen. “We just kept going as we were all the way to the finish.”

“Everybody gave what they have,” she added. “That’s all you can ask in a team time trial.”

Boels Rental Ladies Tour continues with a 122-kilometre road stage in Sittard on Thursday. With Boels-Dolmans stacking the top of the general classification, Dideriksen expects another hard day in the saddle.

“I haven’t looked that much at the course because I’m focusing on each stage as it comes, but the goal is to keep the jersey within the team,” she said. “All six of us are positioned well. I don’t know our specific plan yet, but I know we’ll fight to keep the jersey all week.”